Coco’s year: A sentence with meaning

March 30. 2014 4:11PMFormer Manchester police detective Stephen Coco was sentenced last week to a year in jail for a hit-and-run incident last year. And to think, the special prosecutor brought in to try the case was going to let Coco plead to misdemeanors.

Hillsborough County Superior Court Judge Gillian Abramson did not buy Coco’s stories about that night, nor did Bedford police. Thanks to their persistence (he was arrested four days after the hit and run), he was brought to justice.

Special prosecutor Marc Hathaway, the Sullivan County Attorney, was going to let Coco plead to two misdemeanors even though the crimes were felonies and the evidence of his guilt was abundant. Thankfully, Judge Abramson rejected that plan last fall. Now Coco has felony convictions and a serious sentence for having committed a serious crime. A sad result for an officer with a long record of public service, but a necessary one.